Failure of the 1st attempt at assisted reproduction justifies at least 1 additi...(ut of 8970 cycles. The highest number of...)

Among all patients of all ages who achieved a pregnancy, 79.7% were successful in their first attempt, 16% in their second, and 3.4% in their third. When Mr Hong looked at the different age groups, those aged 35 and under had an overall pregnancy rate of 50.8%. In this age group, 53.7% of women became pregnant at their first attempt, and this decreased to 43%, 33%, 23% and 18.2% at the second, third, fourth and fifth attempts, respectively. There were no successful pregnancies beyond the fifth attempt.

In the 36-39 age group, the overall pregnancy rate was 39.5%. Again, there was a steady decrease from 41.5% at the first attempt to 25% at the fourth attempt. In women aged 40 and over, the overall pregnancy rate was 24.1%, ranging from 24.6% to 18.5%, and there were no significant differences in the proportion of women becoming pregnant between the first and the fourth attempts.

Mr Hong said: "We observed a more consistent pregnancy rate in the older age groups starting at 36 years. This is probably because older women have a lower pregnancy rate from the time of their first attempt, and this rate remains consistent thereafter. It is possible that the incidence of embryo aneuploidy in this age group is the over-riding factor affecting pregnancy outcome in this age group.

"For the group aged 36-39, the pregnancy rate was 25% at the fourth attempt; however, it only includes four pregnancies out of 16. The large majority of pregnancies were evenly distributed between the first three attempts. For the group aged 40 and over, a consistent pregnancy rate of about 20% throughout the first four attempts was observed. From this, it seems that for the older age groups, the number of attempts that provide a consistent pregnancy rate extends from two to four.

"An ART cycle is financially burdenso
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